Rabies is a mammalian disease: Rabies affects all mammals (warm blooded animals with backbones that produce milk and have fur or hair) including dogs and humans. The UK is effectively rabies-free in terrestrial animals: Rabies was eradicated from all UK animals except bats in 1922. and The last case in an imported animal outside of quarantine was in 1970.
It is a legal obligation to report: Rabies is a notifiable animal disease . A residual risk remains in wildlife: Although rabies has been eradicated from the UK, a strain of the disease continues to be present in bats in this country. and Bat rabies, or European bat lyssavirus is very rare among bats in the UK.
Human prognosis is severe: The disease is fatal for humans once signs of the disease appear. It can only be prevented if you are treated soon after exposure.
Related: gb_pet_import_rules and eu_pet_movement_rules (rabies vaccination/movement controls that keep the UK rabies-free).
Source: pdf-parsed/gov-eu-landing/govuk_rabies.txt (GOV.UK / DEFRA / APHA, landed 2026-08-12).
Claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file)
Rabies affects all mammals (warm blooded animals with backbones that produce milk and have fur or hair) including dogs and humans.Rabies was eradicated from all UK animals except bats in 1922.The last case in an imported animal outside of quarantine was in 1970.Rabies is a notifiable animal disease .Although rabies has been eradicated from the UK, a strain of the disease continues to be present in bats in this country.Bat rabies, or European bat lyssavirus is very rare among bats in the UK.The disease is fatal for humans once signs of the disease appear.